


Waiting For It To Sink In

by AlmostSilent



Series: Stars Are Falling All For Us [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek is a Good Boyfriend, Erica is still a bitch, Fluff, Insecure Stiles, M/M, Minor Angst, Scott is a Bad Friend, kind of, so is Lydia, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2018-01-16 10:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1343515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmostSilent/pseuds/AlmostSilent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waking up with Derek was probably one of the best feelings ever, Stiles decided. At some point in the night they’d moved so Stiles was laying on his stomach with one of Derek’s arms thrown over his back. His right arm was kind of numb from where it was wedged under Derek’s body and he was maybe verging on uncomfortably warm, but he’d never really felt so content before. It was definitely a nice feeling, it also helped distract Stiles from the thought that they’d have to deal with the pack today. He’d have to talk to Scott today. At least he was distracted for a little while.</p><p>But eventually he had to face reality, which meant moving from the comfortable weight of Derek and actually getting out of bed. Stiles was hating this plan already.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting For It To Sink In

**Author's Note:**

> The sequel to 'Why Try Anything', I sincerely hope it lives up to what you guys were hoping for.
> 
> Not beta'd so all mistakes are mine and mine alone.
> 
> Title is from the song 'Local Man Ruins Everything' by The Wonder Years.
> 
> (ETA: because of that whole ebooks-tree thing (information can be found [here](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Ebooks_Tree).) this is the official disclaimer that while I don't own the characters, I do own the work and I don't give permission for it to be posted anywhere else without my explicit permission.)

Waking up with Derek was probably one of the best feelings ever, Stiles decided. At some point in the night they’d moved so Stiles was laying on his stomach with one of Derek’s arms thrown over his back. His right arm was kind of numb from where it was wedged under Derek’s body and he was maybe verging on uncomfortably warm, but he’d never really felt so content before. It was definitely a nice feeling, it also helped distract Stiles from the thought that they’d have to deal with the pack today. He’d have to talk to Scott today. At least he was distracted for a little while.

But eventually he had to face reality, which meant moving from the comfortable weight of Derek and actually getting out of bed. Stiles was hating this plan already.

There was a moment of hesitation where he debated trying to slip out of bed as carefully and quietly as possible or just waking Derek. Really they both needed to get up, but Stiles couldn’t help but find Derek’s sleep-peaceful face totally endearing. Unfortunately, trying to slip out of bed while your werewolf boyfriend is asleep isn’t really as easy as Stiles hoped.

“Mmm, morning,” Derek mumbled sleepily, his head burrowing into the pillow.

“Morning,” Stiles can’t help but grin a little dopily. 

He’d barely managed to move a few inches before Derek woke up, but now he tries to slide out from under Derek’s arm. Apparently Derek has other ideas, as his arm tightens around Stiles’ waist and drags him back. He can’t help but laugh a little as Derek nuzzles into his bicep and squeezes him.

“Too early,” he mutters into the material of Stiles’ t-shirt that he never took off last night.

“How did I not know you were this adorable in the mornings?” Stiles asks with something embarrassingly like wonder in his voice. Derek’s response is to growl, but somehow even that manages to sound sleepy and frankly cute as hell. Naturally Stiles can’t hold back his “Awww,” at that.

So of course this evolves into some sort of childish tickle fight. Stiles finds himself lying on his back trying to escape Derek’s hands as he mercilessly finds all of Stiles’ most ticklish spots.

“I give, I give! Mercy! Uncle!” Stiles cries between helpless laughs. Derek pulls back slightly, still leaning over Stiles in that playfully menacing way he has.

“Who’s adorable now, huh Stiles?” Derek punctates this with another well placed tickle attack, “You’re ridiculously ticklish.”

“You’re evil,” Stiles’ response is more than a little breathless, “I don’t know why I love you, you’re clearly a horrible, terrible person,” his words are ruined a little by the bright grin on his face, but he can’t quite bring himself to care.

“Is that what I am? Evil and horrible and terrible?” Derek leans down a little with one eyebrow raised and a playful little smirk on his stupid attractive face. And well, the way he leaned down and captured Stiles’ mouth with his was definitely a little bit evil.

Making out with Derek was without a doubt one of Stiles’ favourite things. He had already known that he enjoyed kissing, from his two previous experiences; the one with Heather that he doesn’t much like to think about, and then with Caitlin right before he fully embraced his bisexual identity. But kissing Derek was something else, Stiles thought he could probably kiss Derek forever and never get tired of it. 

Derek made kissing into a kind of art form, sometimes a kiss was just a kiss, to say hello or goodbye or because he felt like it, but sometimes a kiss was an outpouring of emotion. Somehow the way Derek kisses makes him feel loved and alive and seriously, seriously horny.

It’s that thought as well as the fact that Stiles can feel himself starting to get hard that causes him to pull back and take a few deep breaths.

“You realise my dad is either in his room down the hall or directly below us,” he points out.

“Your dad likes me,” Derek returns, which is actually true. But not exactly the point Stiles was trying to make.

“Wonder how much he’s gonna like you after he realises you spent the night,” Stiles smirks at the worried look on Derek’s face. 

Truthfully he doesn’t have anything to worry about, the Sheriff really does like Derek and there was an uncomfortable conversation about sex and safety and consent when they first started going out that left Stiles a little traumatised but glad to have his dad’s support. Though it does beg the question of what his father would have done if Derek had actually been cheating, just the thought of it makes Stiles internally shiver.

“Are you gonna call a meeting with the pack?” Stiles asks a little more subdued.

“Yeah, I’ll tell the pack to be at the loft this afternoon,” he pauses, hesitates before speaking again, “You don’t have to be there if you don’t want. If you’d be more comfortable I can just fill you in afterwards,” and the way Derek says it isn’t judgemental or like an order, it’s an offer. He’s giving Stiles an out so that he doesn’t have to face them if he doesn’t want to, and Stiles is eternally grateful for that, but…

“No, I have to be there,” Stiles nods, “I have to hear what they have to say for themselves. I need to know.”

Derek seems to understand, because he simply nods with a small smile and leans down to give Stiles another chaste kiss. Then he’s standing up and pulling his shoes on from where he must’ve taken them off last night.

“I’ve got to head into work this morning, but I’ll see you this afternoon okay?” 

Since coming back to Beacon Hills Derek had been working part time at the local garage as a mechanic. Stiles knew that what Derek wanted was to have his own garage and before he’d left New York he’d been working on a business degree to make it happen. 

“Yeah, I’m gonna call Scott after my dad’s left for work, I need to talk to him in private ya know,” Stiles shrugged a little with a frown on his face. This whole thing was a mess and he hated it. Derek could only give him a sympathetic look and another quick kiss.

“We’ll be okay babe, promise,” he smiled before leaving through the window. Stiles could only really hope that was a promise he could keep.

*

Predictably the Sheriff was sat at the kitchen table drinking his coffee and eating a bowl of cereal when Stiles eventually made it downstairs.

“Was that Derek I heard this morning?” he asked with a small, knowing smile.

“Yeah,” Stiles sighed a little as he poured his own coffee, “Some stuff happened yesterday and I ended up falling asleep, so he stayed over.”

“What happened?” his father asked, proving he was the sheriff for a reason.

“My friends tried to trick me into thinking Derek was cheating on me,” Stiles answered bluntly and with a voice as emotionless as he could make it, “Apparently Lydia, Erica and Scott were all in on this little plot and I guess they all had their own motives but...God it’s all just so screwed up.”

His dad was silent for a few long seconds, giving Stiles enough time to shove two pop tarts into the toaster and refill his coffee. He knew his dad was just trying to figure out what the best thing to say here would be, and honestly, Stiles could really use his dad’s advice here.

“Well, I can’t speak for Erica and Lydia but I’ve known Scott since you boys were thirteen and I know that boy doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body, I’m sure that whatever he did was because he thought he was doing the right thing,” he said in that carefully even voice he had when talking about serious issues. “But that doesn’t make what he did right, and it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make him work for your forgiveness.”

He wasn’t sure how helpful that advice was, but it was pretty much what he’d expected his dad to say, which did soothe some of his nerves. The words were still in his head though, even after his dad had left for work with a pat to his shoulder. He pulled out his phone and sent Scott a text, hoping to get this over with as soon as possible.

*

Stiles wasn’t really sure how to start the conversation he wanted (no, not wanted, needed) to have as he sat across from Scott at his own kitchen table. It was tense and uncomfortable and Stiles was so, so lost.

“Scott, why did you let Lydia send me those photos? What made you think that would be a good idea?”

For his part Scott didn’t look particularly surprised with the topic of conversation, he looked like some combination of determined and sad. Scott could be awfully stubborn when he thought he was right about something and Stiles couldn’t help but fear that this would be one of those times.

“Lydia had a plan,” Scott shrugged, “It wasn’t my idea, by I thought it might work so I didn’t stop her. You can be mad at me for going along with it, but I’m not saying it was the wrong thing to do.”

“It’s because you don’t like Derek right?” Stiles asked, but really he kind of already knew the answer.

“He’s not a good person Stiles, I don’t know why you can’t see that all of a sudden!” The outburst was punctuated with a loud slap against the table as Scott brought his hand down suddenly.

“I’m not saying Derek hasn’t made any mistakes over the last couple of years, because he has, we all have. But that doesn’t make him a bad person, it doesn’t make him this big villain that you seem to want to paint him as,” Stiles answered as calmly and as rationally as he could, “Honestly Scott, Derek isn’t at fault for most of the things you seem to hate him for. You’re being a little bit childish and you need to start getting over it. Because trying to break us up? Fucking with my life like that? It’s really, really not okay.”

The end of his little speech was met with a stunned kind of silence for a few long, drawn out seconds. Scott’s face was pinched and Stiles knew that meant he was cycling through emotions. When Scott finally spoke he seemed at least a little calmer, a little more rational, his emotions still seemed conflicted though, a mixture of anger and sadness and a look Stiles knew meant he was just feeling lost and overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. 

“Maybe...maybe the photos were the wrong way to go about it, we shouldn’t have tried to trick you like that. But I’m not wrong about Derek, and I’m not gonna stop trying to make you see that. I just don’t want you to get hurt Stiles,” Scott was almost pleading at the end, as if begging Stiles to understand.

“But you’re the one who’s hurting me Scott,” he couldn’t help the way his voice came out a little broken. 

Scott’s face seemed to crumple in on itself, he looked devastated, totally gutted by Stiles’ words. Honestly, Stiles himself felt a little hollow, like he just didn’t have the capacity to deal with how much this whole situation just plain sucked.

“I don’t...I don’t know how to trust you right now. I’m not sure how this is supposed to work, given that you actively hate my boyfriend, the man I love, and tried to conspire to break us up. That’s not what a brother does and...it’s not what a roommate does either,” Stiles took a reinforcing breath, “In two weeks we’re meant to be moving in together, do you honestly think you’ll be able to deal with Derek being there and not say anything or do anything stupid? Do you expect me to trust you enough to live with you after this?”

“I-” Scott croaked out, “Stiles.”

He was a little surprised Scott hadn’t even tried to lie or make more excuses, but maybe even Scott saw what a massive mistake he’d made, what a shitty thing he’d done. 

“I don’t think us living together would be a good idea right now,” Stiles sighed, “I’ll still pay my half of the deposit and the first month of rent, I’m sure you can find someone at college who would move in to my room. I’m probably gonna stay living with my dad until I sort something else out.”

Stiles didn’t think it would do any good to mention that the ‘something else’ might be moving in with Derek, sure that that would just devolve the conversation into an argument. Plus it was something that needed to be talked about more with Derek before a proper decision was made.

“You’re still my brother, but I think it’s gonna take some time before we get back to where we were,” he let out a little breath and closed his eyes, not sure how to handle Scott’s hurt look. It wasn’t fair that he got to make Stiles feel guilty after everything, but fighting with Scott always made him feel miserable.

“You should probably go,” he muttered, trying not to do something stupid, like start crying, “I’ll see you at Derek’s loft later for the meeting.”

Stiles just sat in silence as he listened to Scott stand up and his shuffling footsteps retreated until the front door was opening and closing. He didn’t move until after he’d heard the sound of Scott’s bike fade into the distance.

*

The pack were all waiting in the loft by the time Stiles arrived, he’d needed some time alone to think after his emotional confrontation with Scott. He didn’t exactly feel prepared for whatever was about to happen, but he knew it needed to happen and that really it wasn’t necessarily about him, it was about the pack and what was wrong with it.

There was an open seat on the sofa next to Isaac, which was probably a deliberate move on somebody’s part. Of all the people in the room, the only three Stiles really had a problem with at the moment were Erica, Lydia and Scott. Stiles had a feeling that Jackson had known as well, though he was sure that Scott wouldn’t have involved Allison. Which really made Isaac, Boyd and Allison the only ones he could feel comfortable around other than Derek. 

There was a tense silence as Stiles made his way to his seat, carefully keeping his head up without actually meeting anyone’s eyes. This might be more about the pack than anything else, but it definitely felt like Stiles was in some sort of uncomfortable spotlight.

When Stiles was finally seated Derek started to speak, his voice was flat and cold and it made Stiles feel even more nervous and off-kilter.

“For any of you who don’t know why we’re here,” he began, “Apparently some of you don’t know what being in a pack means and decided to cruelly trick a pack mate with zero regard for how it would affect anyone else. Clearly some of you don’t know how to be in a pack, and so some changes are going to have to be made.”

Both Scott and Lydia stiffened a little at that, but Erica outright growled, she was quieted by a harsh glare from Derek but the tension in the room was ratcheting up. 

“Obviously something has to be done because that was unacceptable behaviour and the fact that clearly some of you thought it was okay is wrong,” Derek continued, and Stiles could hear the tense weariness in his voice. 

It was obvious to Stiles that Derek was blaming himself for the failure of his pack, like what they’d done was down to some sort of failure of leadership on his part. He couldn’t say anything while the pack was all gathered, but Stiles knew he’d have to make sure Derek knew it wasn’t his fault as soon as they were alone.

“Erica, I know you’re starting at the community college in a month,” Derek began, barely turning his head towards her, “But I’ve arranged for you to stay with a pack nearby that were friends with my parents for that month.”

This was met with a couple of gasps and an infuriated snarling from Erica. It was different from her cold smirks and fake smiles aimed to intimidate and work as a shield, this was animal, completely wild.

“I won’t be pushed out of this pack because of him,” she spat the word out with a harsh glare at Stiles, leaving no question as to who she was talking about.

Derek was on her in less time than it took Stiles to blink, he had a hand around her throat and he was holding her off the floor. The expression on his face closer to disgust than anger and all the more cutting for it.

“You will not speak to any member of this pack like that,” he snapped back, each word spoken clearly and pointedly, “especially not one that outranks you. You will stay with the Donahue pack until you can learn to show respect to your packmates. Is that understood?”

Erica still looked furious, but she did nod, prompting Derek to let her crumple back to the ground in a heap. No one else had moved a muscle during Erica’s outburst and subsequent put-down. The air was heavy with tension and the short silence that followed was broken only by the sound of Erica taking deep breaths.

“Scott, I’m only going to say that if you don’t want to be in this pack, if you won’t respect me as your Alpha, you’re free to leave. No one’s stopping you, but if you choose to stay nothing like what happened will be happening again,” It wasn’t phrased as a question, it was a demand, an order. A threat. 

Scott seemed to understand because he nodded minutely, looking small and unlike himself. Stiles felt like everything was happening miles away from him, he felt a little disconnected from what was happening. Of course he was upset last night, of course he felt betrayed and frustrated by his friends actions, but he just didn’t have the capacity to deal with all the heavy emotions that were flowing around and through him at that moment.

“As for you Lydia,” at her name the girl in question sat up a little straighter, her head held a little higher, “I won’t forbid anyone in the pack from talking to or associating with you, but you aren’t welcome at pack meetings or gatherings any longer.”

This time the silence was complete, there was a heaviness to it that made Stiles feel like he couldn’t quite catch his breath. Jackson opened his mouth like he wanted to protest, to say something, but he shut it just as quickly. Nobody said anything as Lydia stood up from her seat in the armchair, but the tension seemed to mount.

“Without me this pack is going to fall apart,” she remarked coldly, in that feigned disinterest she had perfected, “I did what I did for the benefit of this pack, and if you’re too small minded and ignorant to see that then it isn’t my problem,” she huffed before marching out.

And there it was, the reason Lydia had done what she did. Hubris. Obviously she thought she knew best, thought she knew what the pack needed and decided she was the one to take action. Apparently she’d decided what this pack needed was Stiles out of the way, seemingly so Erica could swoop in and take the place of Alpha Mate. The revelation was like a shard of ice through Stiles’ chest, Lydia was supposed to be his friend, one of his closest even. The betrayal stung just a little more and he couldn’t help but feel a quick and selfish burst of relief that Lydia was no longer in the pack. 

Because she was wrong. Stiles knew that at least. He hadn’t always felt that he would be the best for Derek, felt even now that Derek could definitely do better than him, but he was loyal to the pack. He was good for this pack, he would never do anything to hurt or upset a packmate intentionally, would die for any one of them if necessary. Of course Lydia was wrong.

With that thought some of the ache and tension in his chest seemed to lift a little, a weight he hadn’t known he’d been carrying since yesterday seemed to lighten. Stiles supposed that a small part of him had still wondered if they were right to try and break him and Derek up, if it wouldn’t be for the best. But now he knew, because Stiles was good for the pack, and maybe, just maybe he was good for Derek too.

**Author's Note:**

> I do have an idea for a third and final part in this series, kind of like the happy ending we all so desperately want. But it's not concrete yet, so it might take a little longer. So seriously if you guys have any ideas for what you want to see in the conclusion to this definitely let me know.
> 
> I can be found on [tumblr](http://almostsilent.tumblr.com).


End file.
